Kings Lose, and Sing the Blues : Hockey: They are kicking themselves after a 3-0 defeat to St. Louis.

If, somehow, the Kings fail to make the playoffs, you will need only to look at Thursday night’s 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues to understand how it could have happened.

An Edmonton comeback, while improbable, is still not out of the question in the Smythe Division race. A victory against St. Louis at the Arena would have given the third-place Kings an 11-point lead over the fifth-place Oilers with a game in hand. Winnipeg is in fourth place, one point behind the Kings.

How many times will the Kings leave the door open?

“It (a victory) would have shut it right there,” defenseman Rob Blake said. “There’s still 22 games left and we’ve got to battle.”

Said King Coach Barry Melrose: “We talk about it (the playoffs) all the time. Our whole goal is to play well heading into the playoffs. This would have been a huge win.”

And the Kings (27-28-7) would have finished above .500 during this grueling five-game trip. They played an erratic blend of hockey on the trip, looking offensively sharp against Minnesota and Tampa Bay and hopelessly outclassed by Chicago and Washington.

The Kings had been shut out by San Jose in November and by Vancouver in December. For St. Louis goaltender Curtis Joseph, who faced 31 shots, it was his third career shutout and first of the season.

“It was a tough night for us,” Wayne Gretzky said. “We missed a couple of chances, but defensively we played hard. I don’t think we played badly the whole game. We just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities. He (Joseph) played well. I thought both goalies played well.”

The difference was that the Blues played as though a victory was absolutely necessary, which it was. St. Louis (27-29-8) is in fifth place in the Norris Division, seven points behind Minnesota.

After a scoreless first period, St. Louis finally broke through with Kevin Miller’s goal from the slot at 8:40 of second period as he took advantage of a rare giveaway by Tony Granato.

With 17 seconds remaining in the second period, Hull created a scoring opportunity, carrying the puck around the Kings’ net twice and feeding it to Igor Korolev at the right crease. Korolev shot and Ron Sutter backhanded the rebound past goaltender Rick Knickle on the short side.

“That one hit the post and my skate,” said Knickle, who made his third start since joining the Kings last week. “I’d definitely like to have that one back.”

Knickle didn’t have a chance on the final goal, which came at 7:32 of the third. Center Craig Janney made the play as he carried the puck over the blue line and hit defenseman Jeff Brown with a pinpoint pass down low in front of the net. Brown, all alone, flipped a backhander up high under the crossbar.

By then, the Kings’ best scoring chances were a distant memory. Gretzky and Marty McSorley came close on a two-on-one and Jimmy Carson had a great opportunity, but he couldn’t lift the rebound past Joseph from the bottom of the left circle.

Carson, however, did find something positive about Thursday’s game. He liked the new line combination with him centering left wing Luc Robitaille and right wing McSorley.

“Marty creates a lot of chances,” Carson said. “He sets a lot of picks with that big, wide body. I like playing with him. He’s an asset. We never got in trouble defensively the whole night.

“I thought we played well. You just keeping playing like that and those chances will go in. When you don’t get the chances, that’s when you worry.”

King Notes

Owner Bruce McNall was named a winner of Lester Patrick Award, which is given for outstanding service to hockey in the United States. Others named along with McNall were NHL President Gil Stein and two old-time players, Frank Boucher and Red Dutton. Boucher and Dutton were star players, who later became coaches and general managers. Boucher died in 1977 and Dutton died in 1987. . . . Right wing Dave Taylor continues to take medication for vertigo. The severity of his symptoms has lessened, according to trainer Pete Demers. The plan is to have Taylor symptom-free for at least two weeks before he starts practicing with the team. He has been skating on his own. Center Corey Millen (strained groin) is also skating again, taking every third day off.